That was easy but.......

[mlasko]

So using the suggestions on building my own chimney sweeping rods, I built some out of PVC conduit and swept my chimney for the first time. It literal
ly took longer to get the materials than it did to sweep the chimney. It was way easier than I ever dreamed it would be. My question is, for 3 months of burning 24/7 I got about 1 gallon worth of soot. Does that seem like a lot or what? I would say that half the wood I've burned was thoroughly seasoned hardwood, the other half "semi-seasoned".

 

[Nic36]

I haven't swept mine yet. I too just bought some PVC and a made mine this past weekend. The rain and cold weather has not allowed me to use mine yet. I have been curious as to how much crud I will have in my chimney. I've also been worried about how hard of a job it will be, if the brush will get stuck or any other number of things that usually go wrong when I do something.

If all you had was powdery soot, that doesn't sound too bad. But, that is an opinion coming from someone that has never even swept his chimney.

 

[kenny chaos]

I've also been worried about how hard of a job it will be, if the brush will get stuck or any other number of things that usually go wrong when I do something..

Worry is good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztV6VsZtFjU

 

[Jags]

A gallon in 3 months does seem a bit on the heavy side to me. I am assuming that the majority was the gray/black, flaky stuff?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

A gallon is not critical but still a good bit for sure. If you can get to the point where you burn all very seasoned wood then you won't get that much per season normally. We put up a new chimney a year ago last summer and have probably gotten a cup or less so far. Wife checked the chimney last week and said it is still clean.

Curious about those pvc poles. Sounds good, but what to do if sometime the brush gets hard to pull up or down (depending on if you clean from top or bottom) and that thing comes apart! Nasty. That is why I prefer some galvanized pipe or, like we now have, fiberglass rods that are threaded on the ends.

 

[mlasko]

Well I am burning some green wood...the soot was mostly light brown and powdery. I doing a pretty good job scavenging through this year. I have most of my oak, cherry, maple, and pine already split and stacked for next year. I sorta thought it was a lot too.

The poles worked very easily. I was using a steel brush and was surprised that it didn't get stuck more. The only tricky part was getting around two thirty degree elbows, but even those weren't bad.

Well off to saw up more pallets. Not too much fun when its 5 degrees out.

 

[Rickochet]

How did you attach the PVC to the brush? How about a few pictures of the outfit? Thanks!

 

[Brian VT]

How did you attach the PVC to the brush?

There are PVC fittings with female threads on them.
I keep the sections together by drilling a hole through the joint and inserting a removable pin. A bolt and wingnut would work ok too. I suppose you could glue fittings at this joint so they could screw together if you wanted to.

 

[mlasko]

Yeah, my outfit was glued together and then I just screwed the next 10 foot length on when I reached the end of the first one....worked super....The only difficult part was finding the correct fittings to get the brush connected to the pvc...that was too hard you just needed the correct combination of fittings.

 

[WoodMann]

Hmm, this sounds cool- I twisted my fiberglass rod one all up. This sounds like the ticket; got any pics, please........................

 

[Nic36]

I used 1/2" schedule 40 PVC with a 1/2" PVC female coupling glued to one end. My chimney brush has a 1/4" threaded male end. I bought a 1/2 male 1/4 female steel coupling to connect the brush to the PVC. I guess a picture can explain it best. I have two 10-foot sections of pipe I will be using. I glued a coupling onto my brush pipe and have a hole drilled through the other pipe and coupling end with a screw, nut and lockwasher to hold it in place. I haven't used mine yet, so I can't say how well the setup works.

(broken image removed)

 

[moondoggy]

i actually used to use a rope at both ends, pull down, climb back up and pull up... up down......
yesterday i bought one of those 10ft pvc pipes for like 1.50. my pipe is only 14 ft long so one will do me fine.
i never came down all the way anyway. too afraid of ripping the liner as i pass the old damper slot.
thanks for the connection advise.

 

[Nic36]

I finally used mine today since it was almost 70 degrees out, and it worked very well. No problems at all really. The hardest part of the whole operation was taking the baffle out of the stove and putting it back in. I only got about 3 cups of powder from 15 total feet of stove pipe and chimney. I must be doing something right. At least for a straight run chimney, PVC is definitely the cheap alternative to buying the rods.